Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey RA (Norton, nr. Sheffield 1781 – London 1841)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1838 (signed and dated)
Materials
Carrara marble on turned marble socle
Measurements
770 x 580 x 240 mm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Belton House, Lincolnshire
NT 436767
Summary
Carrara marble on a turned marble socle, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, KB, MP (1769-1852), Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey RA (1781–1841), signed ‘CHANTREY, SC: 1838’. A Carrara marble portrait bust of the Duke of Wellington by Sir Francis Chantrey. Wellington turns to the left and wears a cloak draped around his left shoulder. The truncation at rear is inscribed: ‘CHANTREY, SC: 1838’, and below: ‘Dux de Wellington bello invictus nec pace minor animi indole et nobilitate vir si ouis alius caeteris Praestantior socius hisce aedibus hospitio gaudens carissimus’.
Full description
This is one of seven, possibly eight, identified versions of an original bust (now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1994.295a). The original bust was commissioned in 1820 by the Earl of Liverpool (1770-1828), the Tory Prime Minister in whose Cabinet Wellington was serving. Other versions include those at Petworth (1828, NT 486396) and the Royal Collection (1828, RCIN 35422; 1837, RCIN 2011). Preliminary drawings are at the National Portrait Gallery, NPG 316a (127 – 130), the British Museum (1859,0528.87), Stratfield Saye and in the collection of David Bindman, London. The Belton version was ordered in 1836 by John Cust, later the 1st Earl Brownlow (1779-1853), and delivered with a bust of William IV ordered in 1838 (NT 436766). The busts were not paid for until after Chantrey’s death, probably owing to the prestige attached to both subjects and patron. A letter from the Scottish poet and critic Allan Cunningham (1784-1842), a close friend of Chantrey’s who, from 1814 to Chantrey’s death, served as the sculptor’s clerk and manager of his workshop, requests payment for the busts in order to settle the estate. On 10 February 1842 Cunningham informs Earl Brownlow that ‘150 guineas’ is owed from the Duke of Wellington and ‘200 guineas’ for William IV, ‘making together £367-10-0’ (BNLW 2/2/3/8). Chantrey also did not see fit to charge for the bust of Wellington the Duke himself had commissioned (Apsley House, London); the debt was only settled after the sculptor’s death. Alice Rylance-Watson October 2018
Provenance
Purchased 1838 by John Cust, later 1st Earl Brownlow (1779-1853); purchased with a grant from the National Heritage Memoral Fund (NHMF) from Edward John Peregrine Cust, 7th Baron Brownlow, C. St J. (b.1936) in 1984.
Credit line
Belton House, The Brownlow Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund by the National Trust in 1984)
Marks and inscriptions
Truncation, rear: CHANTREY, SC: 1838 | Dux de Wellington bello invictus nec pace minor animi indole et nobilitate vir si ouis alius caeteris Praestantior socius hisce aedibus hospitio gaudens carissimus
Makers and roles
Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey RA (Norton, nr. Sheffield 1781 – London 1841), sculptor
References
Yarrington, Lieberman, Potts and Barker 1991-1992: Alison Yarrington, Ilene D. Lieberman, Alex Potts and Malcolm Barker, ‘An Edition of the Ledger of Sir Francis Chantrey R.A., at the Royal Academy, 1809-1841, The Volume of the Walpole Society, 1991-1992, pp. 141-2, no.122b, 308 no.278b